Telenor Q4 profit down $335 million despite strong growth in operating income

Norwegian state-owned telecom operator Telenor Group reported a quarterly loss of 1.93 billion Norwegian kroner (about $335 million) for the October-December quarter, weighed down by losses related to cancellation of 2G licences in India.

Telenor's revenues, however, rose 7 per cent year-on-year to NOK 25.4 billion. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at NOK 7.4 billion, while profit margin stood at 29 per cent. Operating cash flow was NOK 3.8 billion.

For the full year of 2011, Telenor reported revenues of NOK 98.5 billion, EBITDA before other items of NOK 30.5 billion and EBITDA margin of 31 per cent with operating cash flow of 19.1 billion.

"The performance through 2011 once again confirms Telenor's position as one of Europe's fastest growing telcos, most notably with organic revenue growth of 7 per cent - both for the quarter and the full year. In 2011, we added 29 million mobile subscriptions, of which 7 million in the fourth quarter," said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, president and CEO of Telenor Group.

He said the group's growth momentum was driven by strong customer uptake in its Asian operations and increasing demand for data services. Its Norwegian operations were, however, impacted by high market activities during the quarter in its migration to new bundled price plans.

Its Indian operations, Uninor, continued its healthy growth throughout the year, including the fourth quarter. The company is now a growing operator in the Indian market, despite the Supreme Court ruling on its licences, he said.